Oil prices fell below $100 barrel Wednesday, down from the 14-year-high of $130 per barrel it sat at just last week. However, gas prices remain mostly unchanged. The national average price for regular gas dropped by just two pennies from Monday to $4.31 a gallon on Wednesday, according to AAA. "It bears reminding that the cost of oil accounts for a...

The conflict in Ukraine is pushing already record-breaking inflation higher and adding to market volatility. However, the U.S. economy has shown strong signs of being able to weather the storm, according to the most recent Wells Fargo Weekly Commentary."U.S. financial exposure to Russia appears to be rather limited," Wells Fargo says. "… ...

President Joe Biden addressed plans for how the $1.2 trillion infrastructure budget, signed into law last November, would be used. The spending will be spread out over the next five to 10 years, according to the White House."America used to have the best roads, bridges and airports on Earth," Biden said during the State of the Union speech. "Now ou...

Governments around the world are rolling out their own versions of Russian sanctions over conflict with Ukraine, as the two countries teeter on the brink of war. President Joe Biden officially called Russia's decision to deploy troops in eastern Ukraine "the beginning of a Russian invasion.""We will not allow Russia to claim the pretense ...

Inflation rose to 7.5% last month, exceeding the 40-year-high record set in December. Typically, the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates to offset inflation. However, nothing about current inflation levels is typical."There's a confluence of factors …," David Wessel, the director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Br...

The Federal Reserve has been working to develop a U.S. version of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that could be used in place of the paper dollar. The Boston Fed and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) released the initial findings from research on a U.S. digital dollar last week.According to the report, the CBDC designed by the ...

Oil prices are hovering near $90 a barrel on average, its highest seen since 2014. The sudden cost increase is likely due to political tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and a supply shortage. Normally, prices this high would call for OPEC to significantly increase oil exports. However, during a meeting this morning, OPEC and...

Paper checks continue to be the most popular form of business-to-business (B2B) payment. However, more companies are looking to make the transition toward digital payments than ever before, according to a recent report from the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP).Fewer paper checks are being processed today than reported in 2015, and ACH ...

China's economy grew only 4% in the final quarter of 2021, the slowest pace seen since the second quarter of 2020, the New York Times reports. The stall in economic growth is likely due to a drop in property sales, slowed demand and Covid-forced shutdowns. Experts predict other economies will also lose momentum in the near future. "The snapshot of ...

The global economy had a strong initial rebound following the start of the pandemic. However, as the Omicron variant continues to rapidly spread, the economy is entering a slowdown phase, the World Bank reports."Global growth is expected to decelerate markedly from 5.5 percent in 2021 to 4.1 percent in 2022 and 3.2 percent in 2023 as pent-up demand...

A new barometer from the New York Federal Reserve, called the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index (GSCPI), indicates supply-chain issues may be peaking and could start to moderate. The Fed's new gauge uses different factors to track supply-chain snags, including the Baltic Dry Index, which tracks the cost of shipping materials, and the Harper I...

This holiday season, sales rose at the fastest pace in 17 years, according to the Business Mirror. Despite inflation, shortages and the new Covid-19 strain, US holiday sales grew 8.5%, the news outlet reported.According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, clothing sales rose 47%, jewelry 32% and electronics 16%. "I feel really good about how the seas...

Businesses and consumers are watching closely as the highly contagious Omicron variant raises new questions about economic recovery. Will the new variant force shutdowns like seen in the early days of the pandemic? Will Omicron feed the inflation fire or cool things off instead? "These mutations keep coming," Robin Brooks, chief economist at the In...

The House and Senate voted this morning to increase the federal debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion, allowing the U.S. government to avoid default until early 2023, according to government officials. The vote was made just hours before the deadline that the U.S. government risked breaching its debt limit, said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.Th...

Concerns are growing over lingering inflation, prompting the Federal Reserve to consider speeding up its plan to raise interest rates. Federal Reserve officials plan to discuss stopping their bond-buying stimulus program early during a policy meeting next week, according to The Wall Street Journal. Ending the program in March instead of June would ...

Stocks took a major hit yesterday as fears over the recently discovered Omicron coronavirus variant brewed. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also shared before Senate that he no longer believes inflation is "transitory," noting new factors—like Omicron—could mean high inflation will stick around well into next year.Growing concerns abo...

Another factor will soon further complicate the global supply chain crisis and international trade—new harmonized system numbers (known as HS codes). HS codes are the global standard for classifying goods in international trade. Starting Jan. 1, more than 350 global HS codes will be updates and roughly 1,500 U.S. tariff codes will also be chan...

The U.S. and Japan set the foundation of a trade partnership today, agreeing to work toward resolving tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. U.S. Trade Representative Katharine Tai and Japan's trade and industry minister also agreed to cooperate toward a "common global-agenda" for trade, according to ABC News."This Partnership will deepen the ...

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday plans to determine and pay for needed upgrades to U.S. ports over the next 90 days, according to the Associated Press. This comes as supply chain disruptions continue to overwhelm major ports across the country and drive inflation. U.S. port authorities will be allowed to reallocate leftover money originally me...

The U.S. service sector grew to a record high in October, the fourth time in 2021, and the manufacturing sector also continued to rise for the 17th consecutive month, according to reports released Wednesday from the Institute of Supply Management (ISM).ISM's survey of the service industry reached a reading of 66.7, up 4.8 points from September...